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Literally "Read The F**king Manual"; a term showing the frustration of being bothered with questions so trivial that the asker could have quickly figured out the answer on their own with minimal effort, usually by reading readily-available documents. People who say "RTFM!" might be considered rude, but the true rude ones are the annoying people who take absolutely no self-responibility and expect to have all the answers handed to them personally.

"Damn, that's the twelveth time that somebody posted this question to the messageboard today! RTFM, already!"

The Urban Dictionary Mug

Proponents of such acronyms encouraging new users to look the information up themselves are often discouraging questions that could easily be answered using the FAQs, Wiki or Google.

RTFM frequents questions that common sense should have precluded asking.

Some may choose to reply in this fashion rather than leaving the newbie without a response so as to clarify what types of questions are considered inappropriate, unintelligent or inconsiderate of others' time.

originally: "read the field manual" used by WWII soldiers when asked basic questions by new enlistees.

The Urban Dictionary Mug

A coomon miscoception is that the word originated from the internet. This word however has been around as long as there have been engineers, or at least as long as there have been electrical apliances.